1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suturing element useful for suturing incisions, lacerations, or the like, and is particularly useful in veterinary medicine.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
In manual suturing of an incision, laceration, or wound, a suture is generally stitched through the tissue and knotted to hold the tissue edges together for healing. In the case of deep wounds or tear wounds where the skin is torn from the fascia, sutures frequently must be stitched through the wound at more than one level, one set of sutures stitching the internal portions of the wound together, another set of sutures stitching the external portions of the wound together. Such suturing operations are very time consuming and especially in the case of tear wounds, can leave pockets where serum, blood, and exudates can collect. Additionally, while suturing the interior portions of the wound, it is difficult to obtain close and even apposition of the tissue edges.
To minimize the difficulties involved in manual suturing, a number of alternate suturing elements have been developed. Several are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,716,058, 816,028, and 2,817,339. Generally, these alternate suturing elements take the form of a shaft with barbs at each end. Some are made of flexible suture material such as "cat gut" and some are formed of more rigid materials. Some can be used in the internal wound area while others can only be used to hold the surface edges together. These alternate suturing elements, however, still present difficulties; each barbed shaft usually replaces only a single stitch of a manual suture and must be individually placed in the wound. As a result, use of these suturing elements is also quite time-consuming, and where suturing is required in internal areas of the wound, close and even apposition of tissue without the development of pockets remains difficult.